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Denis Bouanga has hat trick, propels LAFC past Minnesota 5-1 and into a playoff spot

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Denis Bouanga scored three times in a first-half barrage to take the Major League Soccer goals lead, and Los Angeles FC clinched a playoff spot with a 5-1 victory over Minnesota United on Wednesday night.Bouanga ended LAFC’s four-match, 372-minute scoreless streak in the fourth minute of its regular-season home finale. He added two more goals before the halftime whistle, and the defending MLS Cup champions cruised through the second half to move into third place in the Western Conference.Filip Krastev added his first MLS goal for LAFC in the second half. LAFC is unbeaten in its last seven matches against Minnesota.Hassani Dotson scored in the fourth minute of the worst defensive game of the season by Minnesota, which has flopped down the stretch with a seven-game winless skid (0-4-3) since August. That matches the Loons’ longest winless skid in MLS play, set in 2018.Bouanga’s hat trick gave him 17 goals this season, pushing him ahead of Cincinnat...

Pavia leads New Mexico State to 34-17 victory over FIU

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Diego Pavia threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score to help New Mexico State pull away in the fourth quarter for a 34-17 victory over Florida International on Wednesday night.Pavia raced 43 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter for a 24-17 lead. NMSU forced a punt and Monte Watkins’ 32-yard run set up a 3-yard scoring run by Star Thomas for a 31-17 advantage with 10:35 left to play. Pavia completed 20 of 31 passes for 256 yards with one interception. Watkins had 89 yards on five carries.New Mexico State (3-3, 1-1 Conference USA) took a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter when Pavia capped an 11-play, 76-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown toss to Chris Bellamy. FIU (3-3, 0-3) pulled even on the ensuing drive on Keyone Jenkins’ 6-yard touchdown run at the end of a seven-play, 75-yard drive.The Aggies moved back in front on Pavia’s 49-yard scoring strike to Jordin Parker midway through the second quarter. Shomar...

Japan lifts a tsunami advisory issued after an earthquake hit near its outlying islands

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan issued a tsunami advisory Thursday after a strong earthquake struck near its outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean, but lifted it about two hours later. No damage was reported.The advisory, the second-lowest of a four-stage warning system, asked people on islands in the Izu chain, which stretches south from the Tokyo region, to stay away from the coast and river mouths.The U.S. Geological Survey said a series of offshore earthquakes hit the area on Thursday morning. The strongest measured magnitude 6.1 and was located at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), it said.The quake was not felt on the islands or in the Tokyo region, but the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that a tsunami as high as 1 meter (3.2 feet) could hit the coasts of the islands. A small tsunami measuring about 30 centimeters (1 foot) was observed at Yaene on Hachijo island, the agency said. No damage was reported and the agency lifted the tsunami advisory about two hours later.Japan is one of th...

Elite pilots prepare for ‘camping out in the sky’ as they compete in prestigious gas balloon race

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — It’s been 15 years since the world’s elite gas balloon pilots have gathered in the United States for a race with roots that stretch back more than a century. The pilots will be launching for this year’s Gordon Bennett competition during an international balloon fiesta that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators to the heart of New Mexico each fall. The race has been held in the United States only 13 times before, and this will be the fifth time the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has played host.The launch window opens Saturday evening for what is billed as one of the most prestigious events in aviation. Some worry that the massive spheres could be mistaken for Chinese spy balloons as they traverse the upper reaches of America’s airspace. But the pilots who will be racing aren’t worried. They’re more concerned about charting a course that will keep them out of bad weather and give their hydrogen-filled balloons a path to victory.There...

Georgia state Senate to start its own inquiry of troubled Fulton County jail

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia state Senate committee says it will start its own investigation of jail conditions in the state’s most populous county, three months after the U.S. Justice Department unveiled its own inquiry of Fulton County jail conditions.State Sens. John Albers of Roswell and Randy Robertson of Cataula will make the announcement in a Thursday news conference, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. All three are Republicans.“Now, we can’t solve all the problems that Fulton County may have, or any other county for that fact,” Albers said. “However, we can go in there and hopefully get them on the right track.”Albers, who chairs the Senate Public Safety Committee, told The Associated Press on Wednesday he would appoint a subcommittee with hearings to begin in November.Fulton County’s main jail, which opened in 1989 in a neighborhood west of downtown Atlanta, has been plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and violence. Six people have died in Fulton County ...

France is bitten by a fear of bedbugs as it prepares to host Summer Olympics

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

PARIS (AP) — They creep, they crawl, they feast on your blood as you sleep. They may travel in your clothes or backpacks to find another person worth dining on — on the subway, or at the cinema. Bedbugs go where you go, and they have become a nightmare haunting France for weeks.The government has been forced to step in to calm an increasingly anxious nation that will host the Olympic Games in just over nine months — a prime venue for infestations of the crowd-loving insects.Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called a meeting of ministers for Friday to tackle the bedbug crisis. The country’s transport minister, Clement Beaune, met this week with transportation companies to draw up a plan for monitoring and disinfecting — and to try to ease what some have called a national psychosis inflamed by the media.“There is no resurgence of cases,” Beaune said, telling reporters that 37 cases reported in the bus and Metro system and a dozen others on trains proved unfounded — as did viral vid...

New children's book charts 'key dates' in Belgium history

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

The battle of the golden spurs, the birth of Brueghel, the entry of women into university, the invention of the praline and the independence of the Congo, writes Martin Banks.Question: do you know when these key dates in the history of Belgium happened?You could of course add to this list countless other times and events that have shaped the country.And that is exactly what a new book called “100 Grande Dates de la Belgique” does.The new title, from publisher Quelle Histoire, whose works may already be well known to families and schools, carefully chronicles significant dates in Belgium history to take children from 6 years old and upwards on a journey back in time.Here you can discover 100 dates, “big” or “small”, which have marked the history of Belgium - and sometimes even that of Europe or the world. Each page is devoted to a different year and the informative and succinct texts are accompanied by colourful illustrations.The 100 dates have been carefully selected and classified ...

Family without answers after model found murdered in downtown L.A. apartment

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

Loved ones of a model who was found brutally murdered in her downtown L.A. apartment are still distraught as they've received no answers about her death so far.Nearly a month after the body of Maleesa Mooney, 31, was found inside her apartment on the 200 block of South Figueroa Street, her family said they’ve been mostly left in the dark with no suspect information being released to them.Mooney was an expectant mother and an aspiring model and real estate agent when she died.“It’s honestly so stressful,” said Jourdin Pauline, Mooney’s sister. “I have thousands and thousands of scenarios in my head of what could have happened because we don’t know.”Pauline said she’s frustrated as she’s been waiting weeks for answers about her sister's murder sister since Sept. 12.“This person is still out there and the police are not telling us anything,” Pauline said. “What is the hold up? What did the guys see? Can you share it with us? Suspects? Surveillance video that you do have? Show us someth...

CHP to pay $7M to settle deadly shooting lawsuit

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – California Highway Patrol has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a shooting that killed Erik Salgado back in 2020. The 23-year-old was shot more than a dozen times.KRON4 spoke to his sister, who says she is grateful that they have settled the case for a lot of money. But no money will bring him back, and she says she still struggles with that every day.“No price will ever be able to replace the value that my brother brought,” she said. It has been more than three years since Salgado was shot and killed by a CHP officer back on June 6, 2020. His sister Amanda Majail-Blanco says she’s been fighting for justice since that day.“I’ve had to change my whole life,” she said. “The work that I do now is very similar to my life experiences. I support other families who also lost their loved ones by police. To me, that kind of helps me be more sane.” Toddlers who drowned in San Jose daycare pool identified Police say they were chasing Salgado, who they say had s...

Brian White scores his 15th goal and the Whitecaps beat St. Louis City to clinch playoff spot

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:50:44 GMT

Brian White scored his 15th goal of the season and the Vancouver Whitecaps beat St. Louis City 3-0 on Wednesday night to clinch an MLS playoff spot.Vancouver (12-10-10) came into the match needing a win and for either Minnesota or Dallas to lose or draw in their games to secure a playoff spot for the second time in three seasons. Minnesota lost to LAFC.St. Louis (17-11-5) is 1-1-2 in its last four games away from home — to finish one short of tying LAFC’s 2018 record of seven road wins in an expansion season.White opened the scoring in the 58th minute. He headed defender Ranko Veselinovic’s long ball near midfield and raced on a breakaway before chipping it over goalkeeper Ben Lundt. It was Vancouver’s first shot of the game.White is in a second-place tie with Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis and Nashville’s Hany Mukhtar with 15 goals. Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta leads the Golden Boot race with 16. Sebastian Berhalter made it 2-0 in the 82nd and Richie Laryea scored his first goal for ...